Onions

We'll speak here a bit about the different colored onions, which are planted in early spring and harvested in summer.

Common name : Onions

Scientific name : Allium cepa

Family : Amaryllidaceae

Category : Veggies

Type of plant : Biennial

Sun loving

Edible

Frost resistant

Onions are herbaceous biennials, cultivated in the same manner as annuals, and therefore to be consumed before flowering. It's important to distinguish them from white onions, which are planted in the autumn.
Onions can be eaten cooked or raw, and can be preserved for long durations as a dry good.

Sowing & planting

Flowering

Caracteristics

Identify my onions

This record concerns the cultivation of colored onions — yellow or red — which are planted before winter or at the beginning of spring and harvested towards the end of summer.

Harvesting my onions

When the leaves begin to dry out, it's time to harvest your onions. Drying them is important, to prevent your onions from rotting.
To harvest, pull at the base of the leaves to remove the bulb from the ground.
Clean them roughly from the earth that covers them, then let them dry, either in the sun, or dry for several days in a shelter if rain is announced.

Sow my onions

If you are motivated, you can sow the seeds, which will give you bulbs (little onions with a diameter of one or two centimeters). You must then transplant them in September, and they will spend winter outside.
Sow in open soil, under shelter. Bury the seeds a little and water a bit to seal the soil after sowing.
It seems that the storage of onions is better with seedlings and that the taste is beyond compare! For the lazy, wait until March and get bulbs directly that can be found in 500 gram sacks...

Thin out my onions

You onions won't be able to grow if they are too close together! Two months before the sowing, thin out the young plants so that there is only one every 10 cm in the row.

Plant my onions

Onions sowed in August are transplanted in September, but you can also directly plant onion bulbs bought in a store. In this case, plant them at the beginning of spring.
Cultivate the onions in well drained light soft soil without fresh manure which makes preservation difficult.
Plant them 10 cm apart in rows separated by 20 cm. Form a 5 to 10 cm high mound, which will protect the onion from excess moisture if it rains frequently. Plant each bulb by hand, roots towards the ground and the pointed side upward. The onion's top must be about 1 cm underground. The simplest is to put the onion between your fingers and sink your fingers into the soil; avoid digging a hole with a dibber or other tool: the onion won't necessarily be in the right direction, and its roots won't be in the soil! Water once to seal the soil.

Take care of my onions

Lightly hoe to weed the plot. Water very little or not at all. It's rarely necessary.